The Pandora Directive: A Tex Murphy Novel (33 page)

I looked at her face, trying to understand how she could be so blind to the implications. “There is no question that whatever we find in the ship would be worth a lot of money.”

“Exactly! That’s why we should — “

“But that’s beside the point. Didn’t you hear what Witt and Fitzpatrick were saying? We’re not ready for it. We would destroy ourselves.”

“And maybe we wouldn’t. Why, we give society the benefit of the doubt? Maybe what happened during the war taught everyone a lesson. In the hands of people like my father, the new technology could open doors to possibilities we’ve only been able to imagine.”

“Listen, Regan. The problem is that it wouldn’t end up in the hands of people like your father. Things like this never do. They always end up in the wrong hands. We can’t take the chance.”

Regan stared silently at the ceiling of the chamber. After several minutes, she stood up and brushed herself off. “I suppose we should find a way out of here.”

Apparently, our discussion was over. I had no idea if she had decided I was right or not. Not that it really mattered. The only choice had already been made. I got up and began to look for a way to escape from the chamber. The only visible exits or entrances with the chute door and the Rapunzel window. Maybe there was some kind of hidden door or trap, like the one I’d stepped into up above.

The chamber had a diameter of eighty feet, more or less. The statue in the corner of the room was at least fifteen feet high. It resembled the drawings and photographs I’d seen of what UFOlogists described as “ancient spacemen.” the face was typically childlike and lacking in detail, but the large eyes, halo around the head, and strange garb made the figure look vaguely odd and ominous. On the floor around the statue, a square mosaic pattern was carved into the stone. On the perimeter of the chamber, placed at four equidistant points, I saw what appeared to be perfectly cubical stones. I approached one of them and examined it. Clearing away a layer of guano, I could see that the cube was not sitting on the surface of the floor, but was set into a hole cut in the floor. I tried to lift the stone, but it wouldn’t budge. When I stepped onto the stone, it sank to the point where it was flush with the floor surface. It had to mean something, but I wasn’t sure what.

The other three stones all did the same thing.

“Hey, Tex, look at this.”

Regan was staring at the mosaic pattern around the base of the statue. She cleared off the dusty droppings to reveal his strange pattern. At each of the four compass points on the mosaic, a figure of a bizarre looking creature had been carved into the stone. The creatures were slender and long-limbed, with large, black eyes and no mouths or noses. All of them had their arms raised and were looking up. I didn’t think it was coincidental that the position of these creatures corresponded exactly to the positions of the square stones. I told Regan that I suspected the pattern was showing us how to get out of the chamber. All of the stones depressed when I put my weight on them. I had Regan stand on one of the stones, with the same results. We tried standing on two of the stones simultaneously, but it had no effect. Maybe all four had to be weighed down for anything to happen. Come to think of it, I wondered what would happen.

I needed to find two heavy objects. Regan’s backpack contained nothing more substantial than a small pickaxe. It certainly wasn’t heavy enough, but the statue was. Maybe the pickaxe would be sturdy enough to pry a few big chunks of rock off the statue.

I picked away at the statue for several minutes. Eventually, I got a pile of sizable stone pieces. I piled them on to two of the square stones until they finally sank to the level of the chamber floor. Excitedly, I directed Regan onto one of the remaining stones. Taking a deep breath, I stepped on to the final stone.

Nothing happened for several seconds; then the whole chamber shook slightly. Suddenly, to my dismay, the walls started sinking. Regan was craning her neck around, trying to take in what was happening. I glanced up and was startled to see the ceiling slowly descending. The whole chamber floor was being raised. We were halfway to the high window. I wasn’t sure what would happen if I stepped off the square stone, so I stayed on it and yelled for Regan to do the same. The ceiling was approaching quickly.

When the distance from the floor to the window reached about six feet, I stepped off the stone. Regan followed, but the floor kept rising. I sincerely hoped that we wouldn’t continue on past the window and get smashed between the floor and the ceiling. When the floor reached the base of the window, the chamber came to an abrupt stop, throwing both of us to the floor. I got up and helped Regan to her feet. Across the chamber, I looked at the doorway and saw the sky.

Regan reached for my hand and held it tightly. We walked to the doorway and stepped out of the chamber. It took about twenty seconds for my eyes to adjust to the sunlight. When my vision cleared, we were standing on a massive rock ledge. Out over the horizon was the roof of the jungle. I heard Regan gasp and turned to see where she was looking. Fifty feet to our left, under a layer of twisting vines, I saw the spacecraft.

Neither of us moved for a moment.

The ship was quite large, maybe seventy feet long and ten feet high. From where we were standing, it looked triangular, not like the boomerang shape I’d seen on Roswell’s lowest level. The surface was metallic and shiny. Several black patches on the exterior could have been windows. There were no openings readily visible.

We walked cautiously toward the craft. For some time, we walked around it, saying nothing. I touched the surface, which fell no different than any other metal. Regan came around the side. “Is beautiful.” She continued to stroke the metal, awestruck. “It’s like a huge Christmas present just waiting to be opened.”

I pulled out the communication device Fitzpatrick had given me. “I guess I should call Fitzpatrick and let him know that we found it.”

Regan turned sharply. “Don’t call!” She came closer. “Let’s keep this to ourselves. It’ll be for just you and me.”

“That isn’t how it works, Regan.”

“But it can be. Just think of the life we can have together. I know some people… all we need to do is tell them how to find the ship. They’ll give us all the money we’ll ever need, and we don’t have to do another thing, except fly away and spend the rest of our lives together. We’ll be able to do anything we want, go anywhere we want.”

Regan reached out and touched my face. Until this moment, her words might have tempted me, but now I saw her in a different light. She really didn’t care about anything but money and herself.

“It’s not right, Regan.”

Suddenly, she was angry. “What are you going to do, Tex? What have you got to go back to? Look at your life! A run-down apartment. Barely enough work to pay your bills. It’s a dead end, and you know it. You can play it safe, stay with your little mutant girlfriend, go through life struggling and never taking a chance. Or you can have it all, including me. Is there even a choice?”

I stepped back. “Yeah, there’s a choice, and I’ve already made it. My life may not seem like much to you, and my little mutant girlfriend may not be the most glamourous woman in the world, but I happen to feel a certain obligation to do what’s right, not just what serves my own interests. Even if I went along, I don’t think it would ever work out for you and me. I don’t like the way you think.”

Without warning, a voice spoke from behind me. “What a lovely speech.”

I spun around to see Jackson Cross, a gun in his hand pointed at my chest.

He motioned toward the communication device I was holding. “Hand it over.” I hesitated. “If you prefer, I can blast a hole through you, then get it.”

There was no room for argument. I handed it over. Cross smiled at me. “I thought you’d be more surprised to see me.”

“I figured the NSA would be hanging around. I’m just wondering why I didn’t smell you before now.”

Cross laughed maliciously. “Oh, I’m not here on official business. The agency isn’t involved. This is purely personal, just between me and Ms. Madsen, here.”

I turned back toward Regan. Her eyes met mine coolly. “Sorry, Tex. It’s just business. I offered you a piece of the action. You’ve got no one but yourself to blame.”

I couldn’t stop looking at her face. She’d taken me in completely. Her demeanour was calm, but I could detect a hint of regret. She wasn’t proud of what she’d done, but that wasn’t about stop her.

Cross laugh behind me. “Disillusioning, isn’t it?”

I turned around to face the leering bastard. “So the two of you came down together? How come I only saw one set of footprints?”

“Standard NSA procedure — two-pronged approach. Regan entered on the low side; I flew the Avatar and made a systematic search of the area. I found the spacecraft a few hours ago. In fact, I was waiting up here when I saw you get dropped off down below. I guess Ms. Madsen forgot to tell you that I was here.”

Regan had circled around to stand next to Cross. His gun remained pointed at me as he turned and smiled at my Delilah, then back at me. “I learned about Malloy’s work through the NSA. It sounded like a good personal opportunity. While I was trying to track him down, I met up with Ms Madsen here. I figured she could help me, so I offered her a chance to become partners. She was ready to sell out her father in a heartbeat.”

“I didn’t sell him out.” Regan’s eyes flashed.

Cross turned serenely, the smile on his face unchanged. His tone dripped acid. “Oh, I’m sorry. I forgot. You just wanted your rightful inheritance.”

He turned back to me. “In any event, she and I found out that Malloy had sent the boxes. I had some trusted associates watching for them in different places. We were looking for one at the Ritz when you stumbled into our path. Then, of course, you ended up killing one of my men who was staking out the Fuchsia Flamingo. We watched the Collins girl, but she never got a box. We had a little more luck with Ellis.”

Regan broke in. “You didn’t have to kill them, by the way. There is such a thing as an innocent bystander.”

Cross chuckled and shook his head. “Sweet Regan. Poor, sweet, naive Regan.” his voice went deadly. “Don’t interrupt me again.”

Cross turned his attention and his gun back toward me. “I wanted you out of the way, but Regan convinced me to give you a chance. After I watched you work for a while, I decided to let you do the work, which turned out to be a good decision, don’t you think? Now here we are. All according to plan.”

“You’re not going to get away with it, Cross.”

He laughed again. “Really? I don’t see anyone here who can do anything about it.”

Regan spoke up. “That device he gave you is his contact with Witt and Fitzpatrick. I know how it works. Let me have it. I’ll send a message that we haven’t found anything.”

Cross watched her until she finished, then smiled at me. “There. That should give us plenty of time. I’ve alerted our buyer. He should be here with everything we need within a couple hours.” He levelled his gun at my forehead.

“As for you, Murphy, I’ve wanted to blow your head off from the first time I saw you. Not that I don’t like you. You seem like a resourceful guy. I just like to kill people. It’s unbelievably satisfying.”

I caught Regan’s eye. “After the way you played me for a sucker, I think you deserve to pull the trigger yourself.”

Regan looked away uneasily. “I left before you did, hoping it would save you.” She looked back at me. “You’re too good for your own good.” “If I ever get out of this situation, I’ll try to keep that in mind.”

Cross stepped forward and levelled the gun at my chest. “Enough talk! Say goodbye, Murphy.”

Suddenly, a sound came from behind us. A hatch swung open from the side of spacecraft with a vaguely hydraulic hiss. A pair of wing tips under neatly pressed trousers appeared on the steps of the hatch door. Slowly, and man descended. It was Fitzpatrick.

“Don’t shoot. If you spare him, I’ll show you how to find what you’re looking for.”

Cross whirled around, the gun now pointed at Fitzpatrick’s forehead. “I don’t know who you are, but you should know, I generally frown on blackmail.” “You don’t know what you’re looking for. I do.”

Cross hesitated, apparently weighing the old man’s offer. Slowly, his arm went down. “Okay, old man. I won’t kill him… yet.”

Fitzpatrick bowed his head slightly. “Follow me.”

Cross walked around behind me and placed the tip of his gun barrel into my lower back. When he nudged me, I started up the steps towards the hatch, Cross right behind me.

The area just inside the entrance was quite large, though there wasn’t much headroom. It appeared to be a control centre. There was a soft glow in the room, but no distinct light source, as if the very material the room was constructed from was emitting the light. The area was circular, like the interior of an egg, with three doorways spaced evenly to the left. One doorway was open, and a reddish light was blinking from beyond. The control centre had no seats, though what appeared to be consoles lined about a third of the conference on the right. No switches or buttons were visible, only flat surfaces with markings on them.

Fitzpatrick’s voice interrupted my examination. “We are standing in the midst of history. Those who came with this ship may have been our forefathers. If not the fathers of our race, they at least were guardians and guides to our ancestors. This is a holy place.”

He turned his gaze past me, toward Cross. “You would sell this. How can money mean so much to you? If I could, I would preserve this, to show what our civilisation might become when we are wiser and more prudent. It is a pity that we are not even close.”

Cross laughed Crawley. “You and Murphy are full of pretty words today, aren’t you?” he motioned toward the red light. “What’s in there?”

Fitzpatrick appeared reluctant to say anything, but answered. “The main power cell.”

Cross pushed the gun painfully into my spinal column. “Let’s go take a look, shall we?” As we entered the chamber, I saw that the source of the light was mounted on a small pedestal. The room was only ten to twelve feet in diameter, with a pedestal against the far wall. Just inside the door, Cross pushed me to the right. “Stay right there. You, old man, stand beside him.”